Baby GIRL!!!

That's right! Baby Pierce is a GIRL!!!! We could NOT be more excited to welcome a sweet baby girl into our home.

*Fair warning, this may be a tad bit boring but I want it for me since I'm not a good journal writer. 

As soon as I told my sister I was pregnant she said "it's a girl, I just know it" and I kind of felt the same way. I even bought some girly material for a carseat cover the day I found out I was pregnant. Our Dr. has been SO good to us and has done ultrasounds at every appointment. Going in for our 16 week appointment we were hoping he would take a peek at the gender. As Bret and I sat in the waiting room I asked him what he thought "it" was....He of course said a boy but then said "I think my judgment is clouded because I want it to be a boy." and I was still going with my gut and saying a girl. We got into the ultrasound room and the Dr. asked both of us what we thought-Bret still said a boy and I still said a girl. The Dr said well it looks like a GIRL to me...of course it was still a little bit early so we were trying not to get to excited. I thought Bret would be a little disappointed, every dad wants a little buddy but he was BEAMING when we left the doctors office!  For the next 5 weeks until we went in for our next appointment he kept saying to me "I think I'm going to be kind of sad if we go in and find out it's a boy, my heart is set on a girl." Well he wasn't let down, at our next appointment the Dr. was still sure this baby is a GIRL! It makes me so happy to see how excited and happy he is about our sweet baby girl. Let's be honest though, after what we've been through all either of us wants is a happy healthy baby! It is still so surreal to me to even be pregnant~I get so emotional just thinking about what a miracle it really is. We feel so blessed and are so excited to meet our baby girl...only 15 more weeks to go!!!

December FUN...

December is one of my favorite months. It might have something to do with my birthday being on the 1st! Bret spoiled me this year and I am so sad I didn't get any proof of it. He took me shopping ALL day long (it was a BIG deal, he HATES shopping-unless its at Cabela's) He took me to Gateway, City Creek, the new outlets at Traverse Mountain and to the University Mall! We ate at one of my favorite restaurants-THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY. It was just a perfect day! He let me shop in all the stores I wanted to and he never complained about it once. He is such a trooper! I wanted to write it down since I didn't get any pictures of our fun day together! I sure do LOVE him!

On with the fun....My cousins and I had our annual ONESIE Party at Grandma's. I know I say this every year but I think I love this tradition more and more each year. We have so much fun together, catching up and laughing about all the good times we had as kids playing at Grandma and Grandpa Parker's house. I think we all feel like kids again when we put our onesies on and watch one of our FAVORITE movies as  "THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER"

Here's the crew...minus Jordan. We got him to take all the pictures 

 The Thomas girls

 The Blackham crew (minus Aubrey)

I have to give a little background on why we only allow one boy, Jordan (the babies are an exception of course) to this onesies party of ours. Well the only cousins that ever watched the movie "The Best Christmas Ever" were from Lucy down-none of the older cousins ever got into it. I'm sure they were to "old and cool" for the movie back then. And poor Jordan got stuck in between EIGHT girls. Yup there are EIGHT of us and he's the only boy close to our age-all the other boys are older. We are so THRILLED that he graced us with his presence this year since his wife came too. Lucky for us we LOVE his wife and she fits right in with us, just like she's always been apart of the family! The only thing he needs for next year is a ONESIE! We'll see what we can find!

 Love my sister!!!

 We had to have proof of sweet baby Ridge being at our party. He even had a little onesie on too!

We had such a great time together watching our movie and laughing at how ridiculous it really is-but of course we still love it, it takes us all back to our childhood and who doesn't love that? Thanks for the fun, can't wait for next year! Love you girlie's! (and boy)

THE POLAR EXPRESS

 Nichole~Avery~Maddie~Brynlee

 Mom and Dad Pierce

We were all so excited to go on the Heber Creeper Polar Express ride. I had never been on a train so I was extra excited. I think I had my hopes set a little to high, I expected it to be more like the actual movie and it wasn't. The adults were a little disappointed but the kids LOVED it, and that's who we were there for anyway so it was a success! There were little Elf's serving cookies and hot chocolate, we sang lots of Christmas songs, Mrs. Clause came to visit and even SANTA. The kids were so excited. Santa did give us all a bell (just like on the movie) and the kids loved that. I can't say that we will do it again but it was definitely fun to do once! Thanks Nic for inviting us!

New babies and Halloween!

Our Halloween week was very FUN filled this year! It couldn't have started off any better. My sister Shaylee and her husband Ryley welcomed their first little bundled of joy to their family!

RIDGE RYLEY JOHNSON

October 29, 2012

8lbs. 15oz. 21 inches long

 Brand new-he was only a few hours old here

 Almost 2 weeks

He could not be any sweeter....of course we can not get enough of this handsome baby boy! We LOVE you baby Ridge and are so happy you're finally here!

~HALLOWEEN PARTIES~

 Tuesday, the 30th we had a party at the Pierce's- Check out those awesome decorations!

 All but a few of the grandkids-I wasn't quite fast enough to get pictures of all of them in their costumes But aren't they cute!!!

I did catch this cute little SHARK though

And we found out that Jack and Michelle are having another BOY! We couldn't be more excited for them-they have the cutest baby boys!

~PULLEY HALLOWEEN PARTY~

All of the grandkids (minus Ridge)

How cute are they? Poor little Wyatt surrounded by all those girls!

Ashlee, Bridger and Parker

I think Bridger's WALDO costume took the cake this year-isn't he the cutest little Waldo?

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST.......Bret and I decided we had better dress up this year!

Since we had such EXCITING news to share with our families we decided Halloween would be the perfect time to do that-we found these shirts on line a few montsh ago and couldn't wait for the parties to wear them. I was 15 weeks when we told our famlies. (it's was so hard to keep such a fun secret for so long..... but so worth it when we told everyone) We are so excited to finally be welcoming a sweet baby into our little family!

 

Since baby Ridge came home on Halloween and he had a Halloween costume we had to get a picture together! We were just to excited about him being here and us finally being able to share our BIG news! Isn't he the cutest pumpkin you've ever seen!

BABY PIERCE is due APRIL 18th, 2013.....We can hardly wait!

It's about time....

I guess it's about time I update my blog since its been quite some time....I'm so far behind and these pictures are way out of order but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to rearrange them so as my sister would say...."you get what you get!" At least its an update and you can see a little bit of what has been going on in our lives all summer long. *Warning..... way long post and small picture overload!

PIERCE FAMILY PICTURES

 Since adding a brother in law, 2 nephews and a niece it was time for an update! Oh how we love our family!

RODNEY ATKINS-24th of July

 Despite the rain that we got we did get to see not one but two rainbows, it's hard to see the second one in the picture but it was worth being rained on for a few minutes!

 Trying to stay dry from the rain 

(not the best pic, but it's all I have)

 Beau, Emilee and Evie...I think sweet little Evie had the best seat in the house!

 Our sweet boys grillin' up dinner before the concert-it was DELICIOUS! Since these boys have birthdays only a week apart Emilee and I decided it would be a fabulous idea to give them the tickets for their birthdays. We had a great time with them! Thanks for the FUN!

  OWLZ BASEBALL

 I wish these pictures were in order but this will have to do....we spend some of our summer at the OWLZ baseball games. We always enjoy our time we get to spend there-especially with our family! This particular game Bret and our brother in law Isaac were asked to play in one of their little games they do between innings. It was a Harley Davidson bike ride and the lucky winner got this sweet bag!

 I'm proud to say this husband of mine won the sweet bag!

 They have them spin around in a circle several times, put them on the bikes and make them ride down part of the field...I wish I had it on video! These two were so entertaining! We are sad baseball has come to an end....can't wait for next year and more owlz games!

HAPPY 4th of JULY

 Being that my sisters birthday is on the 4th of July we always have a fun filled BBQ with my family. Grandma always buys the kids matching flag shirts-of course that means we need a picture! We are biased but we have some of the cutest nieces and nephews!

Lucky for us our families live so close so we were able to spend time with the Pierce's too...(unfortunately no pictures) Our family friends the Garner's put on a neighborhood bbq and firework show. They call it The Driveway of Fire....I think it's more like the street of fire! It is pure entertainment, we're so happy we have such festive friends!

GOOSEBERRY

 Nick and Charlie...I don't think this picture could be any more precious.

We were lucky enough to spend the day with these cute boys while their parents ran the RAGNAR relay. What better thing to do then to take them fishing? They were so excited to go-it made the rest of us just as excited. Oh how I love the excitement from little ones!

 Nick was so excited to catch a fish....until they actually caught one. As you can see by his face he was a little unsure of that slimy fish.

 Me and the boys waiting for a fish

 Charlie and Uncle Berts fish-this picture is priceless. Charlie was so excited!

 Before the big catch-Bret teaching Charlie how to fish.

We had such a great time fishing with the boys for the afternoon. Brets cousin Ty was even able to come, I had never met him so it was nice to get to know him a little bit. Thanks Jack and Michelle for sharing your sweet boys with us!

DADS BIRTHDAY

 We celebrated so many birthdays during the summer and I wish I had pictures of all of them but this one was classic so I had to share. For those of you who know my dad you will understand! He is such a character and the biggest pain ever to shop for when it comes to birthdays and Christmas. Well weeks before his birthday I kept asking him what he wants...his response for everything is usually "a MONEY TREE" Well how on earth are we supposed to get him something that doesn't even exist. It makes it even better because all growing up when we would ask for something he would say "sure, I'll go pick some money off my money tree out back." hence where the money tree even came from. Well being as smart as we are.....I went to hobby lobby, found a tree, rolled up some dollar bills and made my dad something he had been asking for for as long as I can remember. His face was priceless as he was opening his money tree! Oh how I love my Dad! He just happens to be the greatest!

HARLEY RIDE

Shea and Kyle

                                    

 Me and Bret

Bret, his dad and some friends rented Harley's for a day this summer and my sweet husband was like a kid on Christmas morning! Since they had them for 24 hours Bret and Kyle took Shea and I for a little ride on them the night before! The next day the went on an ALL day adventure with their Harley's and Bret has never been happier! I love how such little things can make my husband so happy! If only we had lots of money-I know he'd have a Harley in the driveway....MAYBE someday!

 THE GRAND MARSHALL

 I really need to figure out this computer so I can put my pictures in order. Bridger helping Bret drive through the parade. To cute for his own good!

 All the kiddo's waiting for the parade to start

 My cute Grandma waving away....she always told us that she didn't want to be in the parade by herself, deep down I think she loved it! And she looked fabulous doing it!

The Grand Marshall herself, isn't she cute!?!

We were so honored as a family that our sweet Grandma was chosen as the grand marshall. Her and my Grandpa gave so much to the community for the 58 years their business was open. I think she was well deserving of the title! We are sure proud of her!

Wow....This post took me forever and it's super long so if you even made it to this point I'm impressed! This doesn't even include all the other fun things we did this summer-I wish I was better at taking pictures...maybe someday. We also took our annual trip to Cherry Hill, Bret had SO many scout camp outs and a few hunting trips too. I think our biggest project this summer was painting! It took a lot of time but our house looks so much better. We can't thank Mom and Dad Pierce enough for all of their help!

We also went to St. George a few weeks ago with Brets parents. We went to Tuacahn to see Aladdin! Bret was a little sceptical but he actually loved it. I think we will have to make this an annual trip. We ate lots of yummy food and even had some success shopping! It was a much needed get away and so relaxing! We have had a fun filled busy summer, so sad to see it go but bring on the fall!

*Here's to hoping I'll be a better blogger!

Spring Break

For spring break this year we went on our annual trip to St. George. I think it's one of my favorite little vacations. We go with so many fun families, there is never a dull moment. We were a little worried about the weather this year-the forecast said rain for Friday and Saturday. That was not great news for us since one of those days we go on our big barracks ride. Lucky for us the weather held out Friday and we were able to go on the ride without any rain. (besides a few drops)

 All bundled up ready to head out-just look at Parker! His face could not be any cuter!

 Frank and Parker

 He's only 3 and he rode with his Dad or my parents the whole time without any complaints. (it's a long ride) He loves to be a BIG boy and do EVERYTHING his Dad does.

Bret and I waiting for the last bit of the group to catch up~what else do you do? Take pictures of course! I'm sad I didn't get more pictures of the big group but since it was pretty chilly and we were worried about getting rained on we didn't stop as much as we usually do. Despite to cold we still had a great time on the ride!

Saturday it rained on us all day....so we didn't get to lay by the pool like we usually do. Instead we got to do a little more shopping. A girl can't complain about that! We love any chance we have to get away, rain or shine we were just happy to be out of our normal routines! It was a MUCH needed vacation. I'm ready for another one! We can't thank Mom and Dad Pierce for letting us tag along with them! We really appreciate the chance we get to go and spend time with them! It's fun having some of my family there too, so grateful we have such fun families that get along so well! Thanks for the FUN trip, can't wait for next year!

Easter

We had a fun filled Easter weekend this year! Saturday morning we went to Daniels Summit Lodge with Bret's parents for breakfast. We love it up there and can't wait for summer so we can go camping! It was so nice to have a Saturday off to spend with Bret!

We decided to have the Pulley party Saturday, we had a yummy dinner and of course the traditional Easter egg hunt. It's so much more fun now that there are more grand kids!

Taylor~ Hadlee~ Wyatt~ Peyton~Bridger~Parker

Sunday we had the Pierce party-it's always filled with a yummy dinner and a good time! We also have an Easter egg hunt there. I think the adults have just as much fun hiding the eggs as the kids do finding them.

All the grand kids (minus 3) after the hunt with our cute Grandma Lucy!

Charlie~Kaylie~Devin~Ellie~Nick~Abbie~Maddie~Avery~Brynlee

We feel so blessed to live so close to both of our families and to be able to spend the time we do with them! Oh how we love them and appreciate all they do for us! We are grateful for this time of year and for our Savior and all that He has done for each one of us. We hope you all had a Happy Easter!

Beauty and the Beast

A few weeks ago we went to Beauty and the Beast at the Capital Theater with some of our dear friends. We ate dinner at the Blue Iguana and it was delicious! Neither Bret or I had been there so it was fun the try something new. Full as could be.....after dinner!
Beau and Emilee
Since this is the first any of you have seen of these two beauties on the blog I need to do a little bit of introducing......Beau and Emilee are in our ward and some of our very best friends. Emilee and I served together in RS and since we no longer are serving there and having our weekly meetings we have decided to continue having our own weekly meetings at Red Mango while our husbands are at Young Men's. It works out great!!!!! These two have been such a blessing to Bret and I and have helped us through so much. We can't thank them enough! I truly believe the Lord puts people in our lives for a reason! We sure love these two!

Bret has never seen a Broadway so it was fun to get out and do something different for a change. I saw Beauty and the Beast in New York while I was on Heritage Tours. (it's an LDS church history tour)
It was amazing so I had high expectations for the one in Salt Lake. It was still really good and had some funny parts but I have to say I liked the one in NY a little better. According to Bret it was way to long (2 1/2 hours) Maybe it was but it was still fun and we were in great company so that's all that matters! Thanks Beau and Em for inviting us!